"Hobsbawm's brilliant and engaging polemic succeeds both in highlighting what was revolutionary about the French Revolution and showing how people have argued angrily about it ever since."
~Peter McPhee, author of Liberty or Death: The French Revolution
"This is a vigorous, refreshing, and learned brief on behalf of a venerable historiographical tradition. It reminds us of the obvious but often overlooked truth: that there are no definitive interpretations, certainly not of an event so primal and transcendent as the French Revolution."
~David P. Jordan, author of The Revolutionary Career of Maximilien Robespierre
"Nobody is better qualified to explore such a theme, for the range and penetration of Hobsbawm's writings on modern European history have long been the envy and admiration of other scholars."
~William Doyle, author of The French Revolution: A Very Short Introduction
"Much of his argument is addressed to historians of the Left, but his general conclusions will interest all historians of the modern world."
~Nancy C. Cridland, author of Books in American History: A Basic List for High Schools
"It is good to rub the revisionist sand from one's eyes and read: 'The absurdity of the assumption that the French Revolution is simply a sort of stumble on the long, slow march of eternal France, is patent.' Eric Hobsbawm is right, of course."
~Gwynne Lewis, author of The French Revolution and Life in Revolutionary France
"Eric Hobsbawm is one of the few genuinely great historians of our century."
~The New Republic
